Wake Forest University School of Business Announces Winners of the 23rd Annual Marketing Summit

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--A team of MBA students from the University of Southern California Marshall School of Business walked away with a $75,000 cash prize and the Cheerwine Cup on Saturday, Feb. 23, after winning first place in an international case competition at the 23rd Annual Marketing Summit, presented by the Wake Forest University School of Business Center for Retail Innovation.

“I am so proud to be associated with Wake Forest University School of Business and pleased to once again provide this award at this world-class marketing event.”

FedEx Corp., the Marketing Summit’s MBA and undergraduate case sponsor, challenged student teams to spend 36 hours developing a comprehensive marketing plan that would identify and exploit innovative customer benefits that Microsoft Windows 8 could bring to FedEx customer shipping solutions. Eight graduate and five undergraduate teams of business students presented their solutions to the case challenge in front of a panel of distinguished judges.

Members of the winning MBA case team from the University of Southern California include: Margaret Bonner, David Cheng, Rachel Jiang, Christina Marshall, Nikki Modi and Emma Sugerman.

Wake Forest University School of Business finished second in the graduate competition and received a $10,000 prize, while the Carnegie Mellon University Tepper School of Business placed third and took home a $5,000 check.

Other participating MBA programs included: Cornell University, University of California at Berkeley, University of Chicago, University of Michigan, and University of Navarra (Barcelona).

Donald Comer, Director of Digital Access Marketing, FedEx Corp. said, “FedEx is proud to sponsor the Wake Forest Marketing Summit MBA and undergraduate case competitions. We are very impressed with the intellect, energy and insights demonstrated by the students. The teams really showcased their talent and generated a number of thought-provoking ideas for our business consideration.”

Christina Marshall from the University of Southern California received a plaque and a $1,000 check for the John A. Scarritt ’79 Marketing Summit MBA MVP Award. The award was given to the one participant who showed distinction and outstanding contributions during the presentations. Upon giving the award, Scarritt, a Wake Forest MBA alumnus, said, “I am so proud to be associated with Wake Forest University School of Business and pleased to once again provide this award at this world-class marketing event.”

A team of students from the University of Maryland won first place in the undergraduate case, also presented by FedEx, taking home a $10,000 cash prize. Members of the winning undergraduate case team were: Lindsay Djuhadi, Manas Kulkarni, Jack Rupple and Lauren Wittig.

Northeastern University finished second in the undergraduate case competition, and The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania finished third among the undergraduate business teams. Other competing undergraduate schools included Boston College and Wake Forest University.

Carnegie Mellon University received a $1,000 prize for winning the Fan Favorite award, voted on by people from across the globe via online voting at marketingsummitlive.com. More than 16,300 votes were cast for the Fan Favorite award during the 36-hour case competition.

“The Wake Forest Marketing Summit is truly an international event,” said Marketing Summit co-chair, Jeanelle Feimster, MBA ’13. “More than 80,000 website hits were logged in over the weekend on our social media site www.marketingsummitlive.com. People from 59 countries joined in the festivities through participation in team voting for the fan favorite, viewing photo galleries, watching videos and reading student blogs.”

A record $107,000 in prize money was awarded on Saturday night Feb. 23 during a reception and awards gala sponsored by PepsiCo. Additional corporate sponsors for this year's event included: Wake Forest Center for Retail Innovation, American Association of Advertising Agencies (4As), Bellomy Research, Bridgestone Golf, Cheerwine, IBM, Inmar, Lowes Foods, Marriott, SymphonyIRI Group, John Scarritt ’79, Texas Pete, and Twin City Quarter (Marriott).

The Marketing Summit is produced annually by more than 100 Wake Forest University School of Business students led by three co-chairs and faculty advisor Roger Beahm. This year’s co-chairs were: Jeanelle Feimster (MBA ’13), Adam Hanson (MBA’13) and Lauren Williams (MBA ’13). For more information on the Marketing Summit including competing teams, videos, photos, blogs and news feeds, visit: marketingsummitlive.com.

About Wake Forest University Schools of Business (business.wfu.edu)

The Wake Forest University Schools of Business offer undergraduate programs in finance, accounting, mathematical business, and business and enterprise management, and graduate programs including a Master of Business Administration, Master of Science in Accountancy and Master of Arts in Management. Our programs are consistently ranked among the world’s best in surveys by U.S. News & World Report, Business Week, the Economist, Forbes, and the Financial Times. Wake Forest MBAs who sat for a Six Sigma green belt certification exam in 2011 and 2012 had a 100% pass rate. Wake Forest accountancy graduates earned the highest passing rate in the nation on the CPA exam last year and have maintained the top CPA exam pass rate for seven of the past eight years.